Another free Singapore Airlines Business Class flight! 

It is so lovely to be back onboard the Singapore Airlines premium cabin again. It has been a good 3 months. Here I am with another short-sector flight that I tagged to my main redemption ticket. Transiting at Singapore Changi Airport is such a vibe! It will be the start of my latest trip series where I will be heading to see the Sakura in Japan. I will be flying from Bali to Singapore to Tokyo. I paid 52,000 miles for this ticket and 29 SGD in taxes. This particular Bali to Singapore business class flight would have cost around 700 SGD if paid in cash. I got this flight for free. You can even say that SQ paid me 40 bucks to fly this. I have reviewed this product multiple times. I will just touch on the meals and service on this particular flight. You can find some of my recent reviews of this cabin here and here. You can also find the full collection of my SQ premium cabin reviews here.

Checking In

I didn’t want to spend too much time at Bali airport since there isn’t much over here. I  am not very keen on the lounge and would prefer to save my space for the onboard meals. I will probably be taking the vouchers and then just grabbing a coffee at Revolver. I got an airport transfer to pick me up and got to the airport at around 10.10am. I got through security easily. SQ have a huge presence over here and uses up 1.5 check-ins a row. They are nicely segregated into various lines including business class, economy class and even for KF  Silver members.

Immigration and security was smooth. I did briefly check out the new Tujuwan lounge which seems actually rather pleasantly enough. They even comes with some cocktails and drinks. The food also looks very good. I might just give it a try the next time around.

Boarding Process

Boarding was assigned for 11.30am but with the late arrival of the aircraft, boarding was delayed. I wish that they could communicate this clearly to prevent passengers from crowded there. Boarding ends up starting shortly after 12. It was pretty chaotic with everyone just crowding around. It started with PPS and business class passengers followed by KF Gold, KF Silver and then economy class. I was welcomed onboard by Natalie who then proceeded to usher me over to my seat. I will be in 11A this time around.

I was offered a welcome drink. The IFM also came over to extend a welcome and a hot towel. It is so nice to be onboard a SQ flight after after 3 months. Boarding was pretty efficient and done in 20 minutes or so. Natalie came over to take meal orders while on the ground and I got the Balinese local dish. Service felt a little lacking. The standards have deteriorated over the years! They are no longer that proactive! To say, my wrapper was left on the seat throughout the entire boarding process with zero effort to clear it. We pushed back shortly after 12.30pm and were airborne by 12.50pm.

Singapore Airlines 787 Business Class

I shall not dwell too much on the hardware and the seats since I have reviewed this product countless times. You can find some of my recent reviews of this cabin here and here. You can also find the full collection of my SQ premium cabin reviews here. I will include some pictures of my seats here.

Meal Service

The crew jumped into service once the seat belt sign were off. Everything was quick given how short this flight was. For flights out of Bali there aren’t any options to do Book The Cook. You can only choose from the inflight menu or special meals. You can find the menu for the flight over here. I went for the Balinese option. That seems to be the most interesting one. I started with some SilverKris Sling. 

Everything was done via a tray as per the usual on SQ on regional flights. I wish that they could improve on this SOP. The Gulai Ikan, Nasi Putih, Sayur Tumis Campur which is a Turmeric-coconut braised fish comes with steamed rice and stir-fried mixed vegetables. The dish was delicious! It paired perfect with some white wine. The crew also came by with some pastries. 

The Seared Tuna appetizer was unmemorable. I had more wine for the rest of the flight and caught a movie. 

Conclusion

We were in a holding pattern for around 40 minutes due to the bad weather in Singapore. We finally landed at around 3.40pm. It is a rather basic flight and a little low given Singapore Airlines lofty standards. Service was unmemorable and went through the motions. It is a splurge to fly business class on this short route. Adding this to my upcoming Japan flight is still one of the sweetest deals out there. My flight was free! While not the best seats out there, it is still a very comfortable way to fly especially for this duration. It is way too short to enjoy business class properly. If I have to redeem or pay for one with real cost, the minimum flight I would go for needs to be at least 4 hours to have the full experience.